Personal Bests

A Look Back.

This was our last weekend in our current house! Friday night we drove over to our new house, which officially became ours.

Cullen had fun crawling around the floor of his new nursery. He loves the longer carpet!

We don’t officially move in until this coming Saturday, but each time we’ve driven over, I’ve taken a car load of stuff with us. It feels silly to go empty handed! Friday night I took all the big kitchen appliances – things that are hard to pack into boxes, and easier to just throw in the car.

Perhaps the best space in our new house is our gigantic and gorgeous kitchen. Here’s a sneak peak.

Onto this next chapter of our lives! I have moved every year for the last 10+ years, and every time I think it gets easier. Although this time, moving with a baby is making things just a little more complicated.

The weather was perfect for both running and spectating. So much sunshine!

Actually a little too much for this little bear. We had to bust out the Baby Banz so that he could see in all the bright light!

The starting/finish line was right along the bank of Lake Washington. I can’t wait to come back to this park again for running and walking – such a beautiful space.

Casey actually signed up for this at the last minute, when I happened to see a posted for it earlier in the week. He’s training for the Flying Pig Marathon coming up in two weeks, so this half fit perfectly into his training plan, and gave him a chance to get back into racing mode before the real deal.

The race included a 5k, 10k, 15k, and half-marathon – all looping around a 3 mile course. That meant that Casey had to loop four times (and included one big hill) – not the best course, but still good preparation for his marathon.

The loop course made it easy for me and Cullen to watch and cheer. Although I was really the only one cheering…

It was a pretty small race, and I was counting the number of white (half-marathon) bibs I saw going past with each loop. Somewhere around the half-way point I realized that Casey was in fifth place!

And by the time he came around for his final stretch, he had moved his way into third.

He finished in 133:58 – not a PR for him, but still a GREAT race, and a third place overall finish! Neither of us has raced since 2010, and it was so fun to be back out there cheering and watching him run. We are planning to sign up for a lot of shorter distance races this summer, and I’m looking forward to jumping into the Seattle racing scene!

Cullen woke up just in time to yell “Congrats, Dad!”

Post race celebration at Revel – my favorite Seattle restaurant. I started with one of the pastry items – toast with house-made Nutella, olive oil, and coarse sea salt. Out of this world.

For lunch, we split the Abura noodle with Chinese broccoli, shitake mushrooms, smoked chili sauce, and a hard boiled egg. SO spicy!

And what was possibly the best veggie burger I’ve ever had. A brown rice patty with pickled shitake mushrooms, walnut cheese, pesto, and sweet peppers. I need this again sooner than later.

After all that food, the inevitable happened.

It was another gorgeous sunny weekend here, so we all just laid around soaking up sun for most of the afternoon.

Sunday morning it was my turn to lace up my running shoes. I’ll talk more about this later this week, but I am also racing in two weeks – the Indianapolis Mini Marathon (a half-marathon). To say my training has been sub-par would be a compliment. It has honestly been pretty non-existent.

I knew this weekend was my last attempt to see if even there is a remote possibility that I can pull this off. With all the racing adrenaline of Saturday still with me, and a gorgeous sunny morning out on the trail, I set out to tackle my longest run yet in well over a year.

I pushed Cullen for four heavy and long miles in the stroller – my longest stroller run to date with no walking breaks. At the four mile point, I jogged to Starbucks to meet Casey, who was there studying for a test. I dropped Cullen with him and headed back to the lake to do another loop myself.

Most of my runs up to this point have been very short and littered with many walk breaks. For the first time since 2010, I ran seven straight miles without stopping. Four with a stroller, three on my own – averaging out at 10 minute miles overall.

Most my my stroller miles were run around a 10:30 pace, and the miles on my own were closer to 9:00. Even though seven is nowhere close to 13.1, knowing I still have some fight in me gives me hope that maybe just maybe I can run this race afterall. But like I said, more on that later in the week!

I carefully planned my run and coordinated with Casey so that we would meet back up at the best post-run spot possible – Might O donuts. After finishing my last half-mile running uphill, I got there and collapsed into a chair.

And them promptly inhaled two large vegan donuts – apple fritter and chocolate glazed with coconut. Amazing.

Large iced coffee slurped down in about 30 seconds.

We finished up our weekend back over at the new house, trying to squeeze in some painting before our furniture arrives. We took Cullen’s pack n play and put him to bed in a different room so that we could paint while he slept. But first he enjoyed crawling around in his jammies.

And then while he slept, we painted. When they painted our house for selling, they did the thing where someone just painted every room tan. It’s a nice color, but we’d like to liven it up a little.

The real kicker is that they also painted all of the ceilings tan, so now we are going through and hoping to brighten them up with white. Painting ceilings SUCKS. But it will be worth it when it’s over!

Hard to believe it’s our last weekend in Fremont. So much to do in just a few short days!

So glad you discovered Magnuson Park…a real gem of a park in the city. I live across the street from it and go there almost daily. Your pups would probably LOVE the HUGE dog park at the north end of it if you ever get the chance, there is water access as well so they can go swimming! Good luck moving, your new kitchen looks amazing, can’t wait to see what you create in there.

Congrats on the house! That kitchen makes me drool. :-) We love Magnuson. We go there for the Seattle Public Library book sale (coming up next weekend, actually!) and we frequent the gigantic off leash area there for some dog swimming time. Good luck with the rest of the move.

I love your posts. I’m in Portland but I grew up in Olympia and my fam and best friends all live in Seattle. It’s so fun seeing everything through your pics. And um, your new kitchen looks amazing! Good luck with the move and your upcoming race.

You have my dream kitchen. So much light and space! Love it! Great job to Casey and you for running this weekend. I had high hopes, but three kids and cold and rainy weather cancelled those plans. Hope your packing and move-in goes smoothly!

The new place looks awesome! Congrats again.
We love Magnuson on sunny days. They have a GREAT dog park/dog beach there that our pups go nuts over.
Our lease is up at the end of August (um, my due date is August 8). We were originally planning to stay another year but it looks like we might be moving now :( It must be a great feeling to be moving to a place you can finally settle into :)

Wow. Undertrained or not, with times like that on your long run, you will probably STILL beat me at the Indy Mini. Don’t underestimate the power of your athletic talent over many other people’s training ;).

Emily, I’m so excited that you found a house that works for your family (and the pooches as well of course!!)

I’m not a Nutella fan (I know, I know…I don’t like hazelnuts). However Peanut Butter & Co. (made in NY, sold at some Whole Foods) is AMAZING. They have a dark chocolate flavor that is hard not to eat with a spoon!

Ummm WOW your new kitchen is going to be amazing! All those windows, double oven, awesome gas stove. Baller! Congratulations to Casey on an excellent race and good luck to you guys as you gear up for your big move…well, maybe not that big since you experienced a cross-country move last year!

Can I live in your kitchen? That is SO exciting you guys bought a house! Will you do a post on how your house hunting went? I love House Hunters on HGTV so it would be fun to read about your experience :)
Congrats to Casey for such a great finish and you for your 7 miles!
I can’t say it enough, cutest.baby.ever.
And OMG, I would LOVE to have the restaurants you have available, but I am in Iowa and vegan is still a dirty word here :(

Haha probably not. We watch a LOT of House Hunters too, but our process was actually really stressful and kind of rough. We lost a house we loved, and ended up a little further away than originally intended. But hopefully it all works out at the end! :)

Like everyone is saying, that kitchen is a dream! I’m so jealous. I’m actually about to downsize and losing my beautiful kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops is going to be the hardes part. I keep telling myself that the kitchen after will be better. The kitchen is easily the most important room in the house.

I love how much family time you guys have-it really is so nice to see! Cullen has the most amazing smile and your eats look SO delicious! Also, I think it is fantastic you are setting high goals for yourself and running a half-good for you!!

So many things to comment on in this post! 1 – Who paints ceilings tan with tan walls?? :) 2 – Cullens toothless grin is amazing 3 – Baby jeans are ridiculously cute. omg 4 – Way to go on that run!! 5 – donuts..yesss 5 – THAT food!!!! Looks like a great weekend!! Oh and 6 – Your kitchen. No words!!

Totally forgot you’re running that half in Indy and Casey is doing the Flying Pig. Even though we’ll miss you over Memorial Day weekend, at least you’ll be home soon.
And I still can’t get over that kitchen! It doesn’t look real. It looks like something out of a magazine.

Your kitchen is gorgeous!!! I am in awe. Can’t wait for pics when you’re moved and settled.

Congrats to Casey on his 3rd place finish. And Cullen…what a cutie!

I’m ordering supplies to make your protein powder. Over the past few months, I’ve been sick with colds for several weeks. Western medicine isn’t working for me, so I’ve decided to take a more holistic approach and attack my sickly immunity from a nutritional standpoint. I’ve gathered great info from you and by watching several documentaries recently. Here’s to me and taking my health into my own hands!!!

Wow, that kitchen is awesome!
You have my permission to take me to Revel when I come to Seattle next month :) Looks delicious!
I think if you can do 10 miles, part with stroller part without, you can do the half. Obviously it probably won’t be a PR for you, it will probably be tough, and more training would have been good, but I think you can do the 13.1 if you got a 10 miler in. YOu can always walk a bit if you have to!

I think the apple fritters at Mighty-o are probably one of my favorites. Some of the eastside locations that stock Mighty-O have the fritters sometimes as well (good for people like me that rarely can get to that area of Seattle).

Sigh. I love that you get to own a home, and like everyone else…love the kitchen.

Good for you for painting right away. Such a pain but all part of making it your own!

Cullen is seriously the cutest kid. ANyway, the next time I come to Seattle, I need to check out that restaurant. Looks so good. Have fun with the new house. Cullen seems to be pleased anyway. Are you still going to meet up regularaly with the mom/baby group? Just curious.

so happy for you guys!!!!!
and congrats to Casey, that is a really good time. You seem to be such a great team together and Cullen can be happen to have such loving parents (he is handsome as always, love his downward-facing dog ;))

You don’t know how excited I am to hear you’ll be at Flying Pig! I’m flying in from Boston to run it with my best friend as my first marathon (she’s doing the half). Of course you have no idea who I am, haha, but I’ve been reading your blog for a while and it’ll be like a celebrity sighting! So if some strange runner (in pink spandex shorts!) starts shouting your name from the course…. yeah… that’s me :) Glad to hear you’ll be making your return to the races! (hopefully?! staying tuned) I can’t wait to read more about your running journey post-pregnancy.

I’ve read all your FP race recaps and you have me really scared for miles 5-8 and for potential bad weather. I’ve been doing some hill repeats but probably not as much as I should have. Goodluck to Casey! I’ll keep my eye out for you and Cullen :)

I’m running the Indy mini too, and am starting to get nervous/excited. My training has been a bit sub par as well, mostly due to an injury that took me out for 2 months. I did a 10 mile run on saturday that went well, so that made me feel a little better…

What a lovely home. I think the kitchen is gorgeous – I would choose the same range, dual ovens, countertops and white subway tile for my dream kitchen!
Congrats on your longest run yet – I think you’ll do just fine at your half marathon. Kudos to Casey as well!

That is a magnificent kitchen! I’m so jealous. The next house I buy is going to have a great kitchen…it’s non-negotiable. Have fun with the move. We moved to our current house when my daughter was 11 months old, and it was an interesting experience…definitely different than all the times I moved without kids.

WOW Emily – the snippet of the house looks amazing!!! I love the kitchen – cannot wait to see what creations you whip up for all of us to enjoy! :) Your lovely Baby Cullen has seriously got to be the most handsome boy! Congrats to you and Casey – here’s to all your new beginnings…with love and light – Natasha

Can’t believe you’ve moved every year for 10+ years! Really? I’ve moved about 3 times in the last 18 months or so and I absolutely positively never want to do it again (although I know I will since this latest move isn’t our “forever” or even “close to forever” house). Good luck with it all!

oh my gosh the new house looks GORGEOUS. That kitchen? Oh my. Can’t wait to see more. How exciting for you guys!!
sorry about the ceilings…that is a major pain. but soooo fun to have your own place and work on it together:)

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your post on AOL? I require a specialist on this area to resolve my problem.
May be that is you! Taking a look ahead to see you.